The preparation of a new succinimidyl ester agarose derivative (SEPE-Agarose) is described. This agarose derivative can be used for covalently linking proteins and other ligands containing amino groups to agarose via phenyl ester linkages that can later be broken under mild conditions which should not alter other groups which may be present in proteins such as cystinyl residues and glycosyl res...

INTRODUCTION Alkaline agarose gels are run at a pH that is sufficiently high to denature double-stranded DNA. The denatured DNA is maintained in a single-stranded state and migrates through the alkaline gel as a function of its size. Alkaline agarose gels are used chiefly to measure the size of first and second strands of cDNA (Construction of cDNA Libraries Stage 1: Synthesis of First-strand c...

In this study, the insulin secretory characteristics of the microencapsulated hamster islets were studied during long-term culture. The hamster islets were encapsulated as single-layer agarose microbeads or three-layer agarose microbeads with agarose and agarose containing poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSa), respectively. The influence of PSSa on the function of the rat islets microencapsulted ...

An agarose droplet method was developed for highly parallel and efficient single copy emulsion PCR. By capitalizing on the unique thermal-sensitive sol-gel switching property of agarose, PCR is efficiently performed in agarose solution droplets, which is gelated to agarose beads after PCR to capture amplicons to maintain the monoclonality of each droplet. This method allows high throughput gene...

Composite ferrogels were obtained by encapsulation of magnetic nanoparticles at two different concentrations (2.0 and 5.0 % w/v) within mixed agarose/chitosan hydrogels having different concentrations of agarose (1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% (w/v)) and a fixed concentration of chitosan (0.5% (w/v)). The morphological characterization carried out by scanning electron microscopy showed that dried composite ...

Composite hydrogels were prepared that consisted of quasi-colloidal layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles and agarose via the electrophoretic method, starting from three different agarose concentrations of 0.5, 1, and 2 wt/v%. The composite hydrogel was identified to have a uniform distribution of LDH nanoparticles in agarose matrix. Microscopic studies revealed that the composite hydrog...

Cells are strongly influenced by the local structure and mechanics of the extracellular matrix (ECM). We recently showed that adding agarose to soft collagen ECMs can mechanically stiffen these hydrogels by two orders of magnitude while limiting 3D cell motility, which we speculated might derive from agarose-mediated inhibition of collagen fiber deformation and remodeling. Here, we directly add...

Acoustic cavitation generated via high-amplitude ultrasound is used to characterize the high strain-rate mechanical properties of agarose hydrogels.